SAN ANTONIO — As the 2024 election cycle picks up steam, UTSA has announced the creation of its Center for Public Opinion Research, a polling initiative researching the biggest issues on the minds of San Antonio residents.
Conversations to organize the center, which the university is also referring to as CPOR, first started in 2021. CPOR's director says it's believed to be the first and only one that focuses on gathering local data in the Alamo City.
"Launching now allows us to conduct polling during what will surely be a riveting election year," said Bryan Gervais, also an associate professor of political science and geography, in an email interview. "Additionally, we think there is a need for the type of hyperlocal sampling we will engage in."
The first polls will roll out to San Antonio and Bexar County residents sometime this year, and are expected to be built around broad questions: What local residents think about the current state of the city, county, state and country; the most important issues San Antonio faces; whether or not they trust local and state government; and how they intend to vote this year, for instance.
A UTSA release announcing CPOR said service to the local community and service to the university stood out when the team behind the center looked at similar projects around the country. In Texas, similar programs including UT Tyler's Center for Opinion Research, UT's Texas Politics Project and the University of Houston's Survey Research Institute.
"We want to provide a service for researchers and the community that has been missing," Gervais said, while also acknowledging eroding public confidence in polling practices. "We want to be a part of larger efforts to adapt scientific polling techniques for the 21st century.
Students will be engaged in the center's day-to-day operations, too, providing them an opportunity to learn new skills like designing survey tools, leading interview efforts and making sense of what results are gathered. CPOR expects to employ more than two dozen student employees before the year is out.
"The work students will be doing is not theoretical," Gervais says. "They will be encouraged to think outside the box to find solutions to problems we will encounter. Working in the center – we think -– will be exciting. It is not a passing experience."
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